meet the artists

I was so excited when both my entries were accepted into the State of the Art Quilt Juried Exhibition.

The collection also features pieces by artists: Ankie King, Jan McPike, Ros Ward, Margie Creek, Sue Dennis, Linda Robertus, Julie Tasker, Alison George, Felicity Clarke, Helen Kidd, Sue Duffy & Tricia Smout.

The collection has been on tour throughout the year and will be on display at

Gallery 159 opening at 330pm on Saturday 12th November 2011

the exhibition will continue at Gallery 159 until the 26th November 2011

open weekends 11am to 4pm and weekdays by appointment

Gallery 159 is located at 159 Payne Road, The Gap, QLD 

ready to quilt

I was out at Boonah last weekend on a retreat with the girls, lots of laughs and creating had by all. I've been finishing off a couple of my traditional quilts this year as well. So last weekend while out at retreat I pieced together the fabrics for the back and drafted the quilting patterns and today I pinned all the layers together - so now it's ready to quilt and finish off. When finished it will take it's turn hanging in our library/sitting room (we converted one of the bedrooms to a library as part of our renovations).

Simple Times

Finished off a textile piece that I started a little while ago in a workshop (textile collage and foiling workshop) with Diane Groenewegen

The digitally printed portrait was the starting point, and I built the Collage from there. I've used braids, fabric swatches, tatting piece, antique buttons & lace and a section from a damaged vintage tablecloth. Very little machine stitching, I've mostly hand sewn this piece.

red turkey for christmas

Redwork is one of my favorite traditional techniques and its also one of the oldest embroidery styles being most popular between 1885 and 1925. Any plain outline stitch is acceptable for Redwork with most being embroidered with "Stem Stitch". Embroidery stitch "Back stitch" is also widely used, and "Backstitch" is my preferred stitch. I enjoy the rhythm of stitch and the impact of simplicity, one color against a plain cotton background. The stitched portraits I'm working on at the moment while by machine have been heavily influence by Redworks impact of simplicity and the use of just one color.

The term Redwork was adopted because the majority of the embroidery designs were stitched with red thread - "Turkey Red Thread". Turkey Red Thread was one of the few colorfast threads you could buy in that time period.

In the above quilt I have hand stitched the Christmas pictures, machine pieced the pictures with borders and finished it off with both machine and hand quilting. Patterns for the pictures are as follows: The toy shop in the upper left corner is by Bronwyn Hayes the Holiday Elves are by Aunt Martha's for Colonial Patterns. The finished quilt measures 47" X 50" (120cm X 127cm).

Would just like to wish my visitors and followers a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. Many Thanks for your support and encouraging comments throughout 2010 the year of new beginnings.

Today we delivered the SOTA10 Art Quilts to Childers Art Gallery

Just arrived home from taking the State of the Art Quilts 10 up to the Childers Art Gallery. We helped with the setting up of the display. The art quilts will be on display at the gallery until the 12 December 2010. The Childers Art gallery is located on the upper level of the "The Palace Building" in the main street that runs through Childers.

Approximately 3 years ago Sue Dennis announced at a general meeting of Queensland Quilt Group that an Art Quilt group would be forming as a sub-group and asked for volunteers for the founding committee. A few of us put our hands up to be part of the journey. We have held monthly meetings and once a year a juried exhibition is held for the members. The exhibition tours to several venues: this years collection has been to The Australasian Quilt Convention (AQC) in Melbourne, Textile Art Festival in Brisbane, Boonah Art Gallery and currently at Childers Art Gallery.